Stubborn: Part I

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Stubborn

Part I

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

(A special request by a reader)

“It will be fine,” Jodi said, but something, mostly the fact that his father was shaking his head and mouthing, “It’s not fine,” told him that this wasn’t fine.

That, and the fact that his wife was in the fetal position, hugging the hand that she’d landed on wrong after an unfortunate incident that involved their sons’ collection of dinosaurs, Legos, and a remote control car that their baby girl had been trying to figure out how to drive when she was carrying laundry into the boy’s room.

“I-I just need some ice,” Jodi said softly as Danny glanced at his brother Aidan to find him mouthing, “She doesn’t just need some ice.”

Shit!

This couldn’t be happening, Danny told himself as he rubbed his hands slowly down his face and-

“This just isn’t going to work for me,” his brother Lucifer murmured absently, drawing their attention to find him shaking his head with a resigned sigh as he picked up the other basket of neatly folded clothes and dumped them on the loveseat so that he could refold everything.

“Is it broken?” Danny asked, unable to help but frown when Lucifer picked up one of his work shirts and shook his head with a mumbled, “Wrinkles,” before tossing it aside.

“No!” his wife said firmly, drawing his attention to find her hugging her arm more tightly against her chest only to gasp in pain with a sadly mumbled, “Ow.”

“We’re going to need to bring her to the office,” his father said as Danny debated the best way to convince his wife that this was for her own good.

Thankfully, his mother had already picked up the kids and was going to keep them for the night so that he could focus on his wife, who was still as stubborn as the day that he fell in love with her.

“Tinkerbell-” he started to say only to get cut off with a firm, “No, I’m not going. My arm’s fine. I just need to rest it.”

“Sweetie,” his father said softly, “your hand is bent at an unnatural angle and twice the size that it should be.”

Danny watched as his father’s words sank in as his wife, who’d been squeezing her eyes shut since this happened, forced her eyes open, looked down and-

“I’d like to go to the office now,” she mumbled hollowly as she squeezed her eyes shut right around the time that Danny decided that they’d played around long enough and-

“I don’t think she used enough softener,” Lucifer murmured absently as Danny tightened his hold around his cane, reached down and pulled his wife to her feet, as soon as he had her where he needed her, he leaned down, pulled her over his shoulder and carefully made his way to the front door as he tried to prepare himself for the long night ahead.